The Abolitionist Lens
Court watching is about exposure, not repair. Watching doesn’t fix the courts, and it isn’t meant to make them run more smoothly. What it does is reveal: that courts don’t just fail to deliver justice, they actively produce harm. Looking through an abolitionist lens means seeing courts not as broken systems in need of reform, but as systems working exactly as designed: to punish, to control, and to preserve inequality.
What the Abolitionist Lens Means
An abolitionist lens asks us to look at courts differently. Instead of asking “How can we make this system fairer?” it asks, “What does this system exist to do, and who is harmed by it?”
Believers in abolition argue that courts, policing, and prisons do not solve the problems they claim to address. Poverty, conflict, addiction, and harm are not resolved through punishment; they are deepened by it. Through this lens, courts are not neutral referees but gatekeepers of survival, deciding who keeps a home, who can stay in the country, who has access to their children or their paycheck. What looks like dysfunction is often the system working exactly as designed: not to deliver justice, but to deliver harm. The abolitionist lens challenges us to imagine responses rooted in care, accountability, and repair, outside of cages and fines.
Watcher’s Lens: Your notes aren’t about improving efficiency. They are about documenting how punishment operates as the system’s default.
Why Reform Falls Short
Reforms are often presented as solutions: new bail schedules, diversion programs, specialty courts. But court watchers see how these reforms rarely change the underlying reality. Lower bail is still bail. Faster hearings still process people through punishment. Specialty courts may offer alternatives, but only after forcing people into the system in the first place.
The abolitionist perspective isn’t against every change; it recognizes that small shifts can bring temporary relief. But it also insists on naming their limits: reforms cannot turn a punishment system into one of care.
Watcher’s Lens: When you notice reforms in action, record not just what changes, but what remains the same. That tension is where the abolitionist critique lives.
How Court Watching Fits
Court watching contributes to abolition by creating a public record of why the system itself cannot deliver justice. Each note taken shows how inequality is enforced: wealth determines freedom, language barriers are ignored, families are separated in minutes. When these notes are aggregated, they form evidence of systemic harm, not isolated mistakes.
And court watching doesn’t stand alone. It links directly to broader struggles for housing justice, immigrant rights, and family defense—fights that reveal how courts are woven into every system that governs people’s daily lives.
Reports shaped from watcher notes fuel campaigns for bail reform, eviction defense, immigrant rights, and language access. They also do more: they give communities proof that the system itself is flawed, and a foundation to imagine alternatives.
Watcher’s Lens: What you document today may serve as tomorrow’s evidence that courts cannot be the final word on justice.
Imagining Beyond Courts
Abolition is not just critique, it is creation. The lens helps us see courts as they are, but it also asks what could exist instead. Watching reveals how courts punish poverty, criminalize survival, and silence voices, but it also shows us where community responses could take root. Housing instead of eviction. Healthcare instead of criminalization. Language access instead of exclusion.
Imagination isn’t individual, it’s collective. Watching together gives communities the evidence they need to imagine and demand alternatives, not just one person at a time, but side by side. The abolitionist lens insists that another way is possible, and that exposing the failures of punishment is the first step in building systems of care and accountability outside the courtroom.
Watcher’s Lens: Don’t stop at recording what is wrong. Ask yourself what it points toward: what care or support could have replaced punishment in that moment?
Why This Matters in Detroit
In Detroit, the abolitionist lens is not abstract, it’s urgent. Our courts process thousands of eviction cases each year, often against tenants without representation. Immigration hearings for the entire state are held downtown, deciding whether families can remain together. Bail practices continue to punish poverty and keep people in cages for being poor.
Detroit also has a long history of abolitionist organizing—from Black radical movements to housing struggles and campaigns against prisons and policing. Court watching here builds on that legacy, connecting today’s volunteers to generations of organizing for a world beyond punishment. Watching reveals how deeply punishment is woven into daily court operations, and why imagining something beyond them is necessary for our communities to thrive.
Learn More
For more on how court watching connects to abolitionist organizing across the country, explore our partners at the national Beyond Courts project. They document how housing, family, immigration, and other courts uphold systemic harm, and how communities are building visions beyond punishment.
Help Hold Courts Accountable
You don’t need to sit on the sidelines. The courts are public, and your presence matters. Sign up to become a Court Watcher and help turn hidden harm into public accountability.